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Boring v. Alaska Airlines9/13/2004
Concurring: C. Kenneth Grosse, Marlin J. Appelwick
OPINION PUBLISHED IN PART
The federal Pilot Records Improvement Act of 1996 (PRIA) formerly known as the Airline Pilot Hiring Safety Act requires that before allowing a job applicant to begin service as a pilot, an air carrier shall request and receive from air carriers that have previously employed the individual records pertaining to 'any disciplinary action taken with respect to the individual that was not subsequently overturned' during the five-year period preceding the employment application. Shortly before his job application was accepted by Alaska Airlines, Inc., Mesa Air Group terminated Kenneth Boring's employment for insubordination. Boring filed a grievance with the pilots' union. Following a hearing, Mesa Air rescinded the termination and reinstated Boring's employment without loss of pay. In responding to Alaska Airlines' official inquiry under PRIA, Mesa reported that there had been no disciplinary action taken with respect to Boring that had not been overturned.
During the hiring interview process, Alaska Airlines asked Boring whether he ever had been suspended, terminated, or otherwise disciplined by Mesa Air, and Boring answered that he had not. When Alaska Airlines subsequently learned that Boring had in fact been disciplined and had failed to disclose this fact during the hiring process, it terminated his employment.
Boring brought this lawsuit, contending, among other things, that under PRIA Alaska Airlines had no right to require him to disclose facts pertaining to disciplinary action that had subsequently been overturned; and that Alaska wrongfully terminated his employment in violation of public policy upon learning that he had, as Boring puts it, exercised his right to privacy guaranteed by PRIA. The trial court granted Alaska Airlines' motion for summary judgment dismissing Boring's claims, and Boring appeals. PRIA neither prohibits air carriers from requiring pilot applicants to disclose disciplinary action that subsequently was rescinded, nor prohibits the firing of a pilot who falsely reports that there has been no such disciplinary action. Accordingly, we affirm.
FACTS
Appellant Kenneth Boring was hired by Mesa Air Group as a pilot in January 1997. On September 6, 2000, Captain Henry J. Myers, Regional Chief Pilot for Mesa Air, suspended Boring without pay for insubordination, after Boring refused an additional flying assignment that same day. After a meeting between Captain Myers, Chief Pilot Zakaullah Khogyani, Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) Master Executive Council (MEC) Chairman Captain Andrew Hughes, and ALPA Representative Captain Casey Meeks, Mesa Air terminated Boring's employment for insubordination, on September 12, 2000.
Boring thereafter filed a grievance with ALPA and requested a hearing to determine 'whether the Company had just cause to terminate me for insubordination.' Clerk's Papers at 80. Boring received a hearing and was reinstated to employment status as a pilot with Mesa Air, effective September 26, 2000. Captain Michael Ferverda, Senior Vice President of Flight Operations at Mesa Air, later testified that it was his intent to rescind the termination, but not the suspension without pay. Nevertheless, under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement between Mesa Air Group and ALPA, not only was Boring's termination eliminated from his employment record, but Boring was also reinstated to his former position without loss of pay. Boring later stated that he was told that the entire incident had been permanently cleared from his records and that Captain Ferverda told him that the incident wa
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